Tag Archives: Love Stories

“If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you ” — “Perhaps Love, John Denver”

This is Anne’s 100th article on Iris! 🙂

As we reach the benchmark of hundred articles, I had promised myself that the 100th article should be on ‘love’. What else other than love can keep people and thoughts going? Recently, one of my students met me and was narrating the story of a close relative who is in hospital on life support systems. She was telling me that the only things that the patient responds to are old pictures of their family and children. These pictures bring tears and smiles into the eyes of the patient — perhaps love drives the breaths into their own tiny cycles.

We call love a ‘feel good factor’ these days — a side preoccupation in an ultra-busy professional life. But, stories aren’t complete without a love story — however minor they might appear to be.

A group of my readers have written and asked me personally questions that whether I have ever loved anyone? My answer has been: “I would not be writing unless I was in love”. We love something or the other and someone or the other loves us, which keeps us going with work and life. It may be work, it may be a person, or it may be simply a family.

Today I was reading Barack Obama’s statement on a social networking site:

“I’m inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.”—President Obama.

People — in the form of parents, spouses, friends, children, or siblings — are the purpose of life and work. Work is a way of living, while love is the way of life. We love ourselves as much as we love people and things, and that perhaps is our greatest strength and deepest weakness.

Here is a love story from the many stories that occur in our lives. Your choice it is, to call the story a fiction or a slice of life….

She (just one face among many faces, so we shall call her ‘she’) and he (nameless) . They are two ‘lost’ souls who are wedded to work and books. They had not seen each other, not spoken to each other, not registered each other, even though they worked in the same premise.

They had enough of their own shares of heart-breaks, student day stories, and one-sided love stories to keep them preoccupied in their own lives and work-zones.

She was going through tumultuous changes in her life and work, such that nothing in the world could draw her attention except work, and work related stories. She would come back tired every evening, cook a bit for herself, walk out with her lappy to the balcony, look at the dark star-studded skies, give a smile to the dark emptiness and sigh deeply. Was that an emptiness or the feel of people whom she somehow lost on her way — not sure.

In fact, her professional commitments were so high that in personal circles and among friends many people perceived her as ‘plastic’ and non-reliable — committed only to her ambitions. He was more of an alien in his own land — friends, people whom he knew were now a part of a long lost dream and an alien land. His had more of a workaholic life, added to a whole lot of social and humanitarian responsibilities.

Months passed and years slipped away, the monotony of every day life was something that she had come to love. If there was an emptiness, that emptiness was extremely dear because of the amount of ‘thinking time’ she got.

Then, one day suddenly she got a friend request from He and an offline message: “How do you feel when you go back to campus after leaving IIT? The Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets feeling — I feel, I might cry at any moment — recorded today at Kharagpur”. She was taken aback. Who is this person and why a friend request on her mail id? She figured out soon that it was a peer. She remembered seeing him once during a wedding party of common friends and being the target of friends’ jokes because coincidentally both had landed up in the reception wearing the same outfits — jeans and black shirts.

She accepted the request and forgot about him. He came back next time online and this time he asked her: “did you get who I was from my mail id?” She said “yes, it was obvious…”. He was in Kharagpur, his alma-mater and they shared emotions that were perhaps shared by campus dwellers across all IITs. For two days he wrote to her every thing related to his travel back to campus, his visit to his old hostels, meeting canteen people, having Tinku, guest-house renovations and so on. For she, IIT campus was a weakness — a love that remained in the form of nostalgia — and he was reliving everything that she had herself felt. Who was he? What was his antecedent — she did not care. All that mattered to her was that he was narrating the exact emotions that she had ever felt for her campus and her life, of course with some amount of dry humour. There was of course more about him that she wondered about — his commitment to social causes, his humour, and his love for literature in Hindi language.

Two evenings had passed. The monotony of she’s life had already broken — no going out to balcony and no sighing away at the dark emptiness. On the third evening, before returning from office she met a friend over coffee. Suddenly the friend came up with a statement; “She you should now think of settling in personal life. Do not take life as a fairy-tale where someday a Prince Charming would come and sweep you off your feet. We love our parents — at least do things for their sake.” She decided to get serious — returned back home and said a ‘yes’ to a proposal sent by parents since a long time.

Late that night she came online to check her mails. He wrote to her: “I have been waiting for you. Got to tell you something. I think I like you…. It is perhaps love….”

The adventure of ‘perhaps love’ had just begun….This was a prelude to what might or might not have been a love story….

I leave the rest for you to imagine and construct your own stories….Angles, triangles, fights, makes-breaks, happily ever-after,….with the realization — that “perhaps it is love”…

Good night and take care!

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
-Mother Teresa

Some readers of Iris have been reviewing that Anne possibly likes only Hollywood and Hollywood love stories. Not true 🙂 . Anne is actually nervous to review Bollywood — there is so much love, music, and drama here that it’s tough to leave out some and take others into account. Indians actually in spite of all arranged marriage systems, in spite of parental controls, family inclination, promises to remain dedicated to the sanctity of the marital knot — are the most romantic. Don’t believe me? Watch Balraj Sahni and Leela Chitnis in that song Ae Meri Zohra Jabeen from the movie Waqt (1965).

I am daring to take one step and presenting to you my picks of love stories from Bollywood. This list is not exhaustive.

Let us begin with the original, the fatalistic, the ultimate love antidote — Devdas (1955) . One movie which has been adapted and re-adapted n number of times. Based on the Bengali novel (1917) of the same name by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Devdas (pronounced as Debdash in Bengali) is a saga of doomed love. Reading the novel is a different experience altogether. There is a complete dreariness in the writing of Saratchandra unlike the glossy, dramatic effect achieved in the modern adaptation of the novel by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. It’s an existential novel in its own way. In fact, in the novel, at the end, the body of Devdas remains unattended to be taken away by Doms and Chandals (lowest classes of the society). The starkness of the narrative could only be matched by the classic acting of Dilip saab as the Devdas in the 1955 version of the movie. Directed by Bimal Roy, the movie has epic dimensions. Personally, I could never watch the movie as a child because of Dilip saab’s extremely slow dialogue delivery, and because of the starkness of the background and the slow movement of the plot. Watched the movie very late in my life — the result, I could not watch anything else for months. Dilip Kumar is the very manifestation of Deb, the rich, misguided and arrogant Zamindar, whose love remains incomplete partly because of his own stubbornness and partly because of cultural pressures. Suchitra Sen as Parvati is a dream, without any make-up, without the gloss of the modern adaptations of Paro, she gives the impression of what love as someone’s object for desire can be. Her eyes are enough to speak volumes. It’s such a surprise to see Paro coming to Devdas a few days before her marriage and pleading him to run away with her — women can be so passionate when they are in love, she epitomizes the virtue of faithfulness in love. Paro is much ahead of her times as a character. Vaijayanthi Mala’s dance number on Lata ji’s song Ab age teri marzi, has always intrigued me for no defined reasons.Bimal Roy is not just an iconic director, in Devdas he is a narrator par excellence who can actually bring love into the visual medium with the starkness of life.

Devdas is not my only favourite of Dilip saab — I am a huge fan of Madhumati (1958) another Bimal Roy creation and written by Ritwik Ghatak. Actually, in the hostel friends used to tease me for watching that movie multiple times with the dialogues like Babuji!! Aap lautke jaldi aaoge na? 🙂 ….True this movie could make rebirth and love across births a real cliche in Hindi film making. The movie combines love across births, with haunting, debauchery, life of the plantation workers, and the beauty of the mountains. This is one of my all time favourites of Pran saab in the negative role of the Zemindar Ugranarayan who eyes Madhumati and ultimately leads to her death, when Anand is away to the city. However, Dilip Kumar in a loose Western suit as the manager of the tea plantation, serenading Suhana safar aur yeh mausam haseen…shall remain an unforgettable impression. That terrific dance number “Zulmi sang ankh ladi, sakhi kaa se kahoon…din chhota raat badi” filmed on Vaijayanthi Mala speaks of the liberal spirit, the untainted life of the mountains.

I don’t know, but usually get stuck in the 1950s. Just one more entry and we move beyond — Guru Dutt. I always resist writing about Guru Dutt, partly because of an awe for him and partly because I consider him as the guru of film-making along with Satyajit Ray. Pyaasa (1957), some viewers would argue is a social movie. I would however argue that it is also a love story par-excellence. While, Kagaz ke Phool has an actress, as the object of love, I find Pyasa special because of its idea of a class-less love. Waheeda Rehman as Gulabo the prostitute who is the only soul that truly loves the failed poet Vijay (Guru Dutt), seems like eternity herself. Her innocence combined with her cheekiness makes her a delight to watch on screen. She defends and preserves his poems more than her own life. Remember the song “Hum apki ankhon mein duniya ko bhoola den toh?” (rough transl: what if I forget the world by being lost in your eyes?) Gulabo the character stands in stark contrast to Meena (Mala Sinha), the poet Vijay’s love from his college days, the elite, the love that betrayed him to get married to a rich publisher.

I used to host Guru Dutt film festivals in my room during my hostel days — each of the movies, whether Sahib, Biwi, aur Ghulam, Mr. and Mrs. 55, or Chaudvin ka Chand interweave love with social and cultural issues.

I have never been able and nor is it likely to happen in my life that I would admire any actress as much as Waheeda ji and Madhubala. Beauty, charm, and intelligence along with acting manifest themselves in these actresses.

How can one forget the cult, the heavy, the highly literary Mughal-e-Azam (1960). I will not describe this movie much except the fact that through histories it has been proved that if there are chains on a particular emotion, it would find expression in some other form. Pages have been written about the classic song Jab Pyar Kiya toh Darna Kiya… with the gorgeous Anarkali (Madhubala) dancing herself out in lakhs of mirror pieces, looking deep into the eyes of the emperor of the Mughal dynasty and challenging him in the open Durbar to just attempt from stopping her to love Sehzada Saleem. It seems as if pages of history can be turned by just one moment of dark passion. Personally, my favourite song of the movie is Mohe Panghat pe Nandlal Chhed Gayo Re…. This song is magical in picturisation — Madhubala with the half- drawn veil, coyly looking at Saleem, while singing thumri and dancing Kathak on the slow beats, is simply ethereal. That particular song exudes purity and sensuousness. Some sources have said that Mughal-e-Azam marked the high-point in the drama of Dilip Kumar-Madhubala real life love story. The movie is not for the faint-hearted — you should have the patience, aptitude for Urdu, and the ability to place yourself in that historical moment.

If I would have been a film-maker, my dream would be to make a movie like Guide (1965). This movie (in my opinion) is a movie that is complete in every aspect. Produced by Dev Anand and directed by Vijayanand, the movie is an experience on celluloid. The interpenetration of love and philosophy with the best quality music finds its complete expression in the movie. This movie remains special for very personal reasons too apart from the cinematic excellence: (a) Dev saab is my romantic dream and my icon. As a tiny girl, I had often said that I want to marry Dev Anand (that hasn’t changed with Salman, Amir, and SRK in the block 🙂 ); (b) The song Piya tose naina lage re made me break the microphone and a friend’s tabla in the university when I was practicing dance (of course badly) based on that song. Personal anecdotes apart, this movie glorifies love in its most unrestrained and passionate form. Rosy, the wife of an archeologist Marco (who doesn’t care an iota about her), breaks free from the rules of the society and conventions to assert her identity as a dancer. She is helped by the tour guide played by Dev Anand who fights his mother and uncle to make the dreams of Rosy transform into reality. Guide is a movie that shows love in the greyest shades — the love of Rosy and Raju guide being based on unacceptable norms of the society, and Raju’s forgery of Rosy’s signature on Marco’s papers. Remember that scene when Rosy dances her heart out in the snake-charmers hamlet?….ohhhh! what a scene depicting the grey passion of a woman who has been suppressed for ages! I have never seen a better snake dance sequence. Dev Anand strikes the cord as the ultimate scape-goat to pseudo-religion as the fasting Swami who would bring rains to the rain-starved village.

Cut to 1970s, Abhimaan (1973) is my Amitabh Bacchan favourite. Personally, along with Chupke Chupke,Shakti, and Trishul, this is my Bachhan favourite. The love story showing the complexities of a married life between two equally talented, same profession couple is just so contemporary and realistic in its presentation. Just love that moment in the movie when Amitabh Bachhan comes back after a very long time to his wife, a more talented singer herself, suffering from the mental trauma of her husband’s indifference, turned a stone in herself. He sees her as a lifeless body that is alive only with the hope of his return. That song tere mere milan ki yeh raina… is so absolutely poignant in the visual and the musical effect.In fact, each and every song of that movie is so lilting.

Unconditionally love Silsila (1981), not for Amitabh Bacchan but rather for Rekha and Sanjeev Kumar. A year ago, a friend and I had spent one whole night translating Silsila for another friend who did not understand Hindi (I still imagine my friend translating Neela Aasman so Gaya as Blue sky sleeps, sleeps, sleeps 😛 …! ). First time did I realize that the movie is so dense in content and meanings. Apart from the larger than life gorgeous Rekha in her Satin sarees and deep maroon lipstick and long open tresses (that movie can make any not-so-good looking woman duck 😦 ), the movie stands out for its extraordinary performance . What I feel uncomfortable about that movie is the last scene forced “Indian” reconciliation to the age old marital bond, where the protagonists have to return back to their lives after a series of misadventures. However, Silsila is more modern in its treatment than many movies of our times.

Love in its multiple facets is a dense aspect in the Bollywood context. The movies that I have listed here were released and made long before I or many of you were even born. However, there are certain emotions that transcend the boundaries of time and space. In fact, there should have been two posts since I am trying to chronologically arrange my picks. I have not dealt with love stories from Bollywood of our times — that is slightly unfair. Nevertheless, this post is dedicated to those immortal souls of cinematic art who considered movie-making as a love in itself and whose movies we still watch. Social, cultural, economic and so many other factors go into defining what is termed as ‘love’ in this context.

Some intellectualize love, some long for it, some detest it, some philosophize it, some are afraid of its negative dimensions, some contextualize it as the ultimate emotion, while some just live it….

That’s all I have on the question “Do I hate love storys?” Iris hopefully should be back next week with a new post and new story 🙂 . Till then,

Got to watch ‘I Hate Luv Storys’ finally after almost a year of the release of the movie. A friend actually ‘informed’ me that there is Salman in a guest appearance at the end of the movie and the girl gets to marry him — so I didn’t want to miss the movie at the cost of my own life. Salman hardly gets to marry the girl in any of his movies when he is in guest appearance 😦 . Moreover, didn’t even check IMDB for the spoiler. Well, then wow! I did it again — watching another LOVE STORY!!!

However, this post is not going to be a ghisa-pita review of the movie, we have enough of reviewers on the block. My intention is to see its practical application (whatever that means) 😛 .

For so many years I have been promising myself that I will watch Spiderman, He-man, Shaktiman, thriller, action, even vampire…but not a love story!!!! However, as destiny would have it I land up ‘lyking’ love stories and vice versa. No, I mean theoretically — don’t really know what am I supposed to explain this as. Academics has so much taken the better of me that these days I think only in terms of theory and labs :(.

Coming back to the movie, ‘I Hate Luv Storys’ like all the multiplex masala Bollywood movies of ‘our times’ has a confused hero, an equally confused heroine, and a not-so-confused fiance. As cliche has it, girls fall for the attractive and confused good-looking, non-committal hunk rather than the nice guy who would make their lives much easier. There are of course well-meaning common friends who try their best to fix-up the love story, but keep failing. Five-six songs later and an engagement later the ‘oh so confused poor hunk’ realizes that he has to win this girl, and then running through airports, two-three cabs change, a few gorgeous looking tee-shirts later, the girl and the guy are back with sehnais and with happy parents blessing the love story. Grrrrrrrr!! I hate love stories!

However, the crux of my problem today is do I “really” hate love stories? What makes love stories click in the market? There must be some ‘feel good’ factor, some sweet promises that make these stories tick. In fact, when you come back home tired and lost, why is it that a soft romantic number makes the evenings bearable rather than the strong disco types? Why does Bollywood have to get 14 songs shot in exotic locations in order to make the big bucks? Why do characters like ‘Prem’, ‘Rahul’ and ‘Raj’ still remain (almost) every girl’s fancy? Filmy, that I have always been, ‘I Hate Luv Storys’ inspired me to investigate these questions further.

Even in Hollywood, greater is the love story greater is the bucks that it makes…. Let me recount from memory some of the classic love stories which in spite of achieving hall of fame, thousands of pages of reviews, awards, and accolades, still remain review-hungry.

I have always thought and lived with a dream to meet Humphrey Bogart, the super-cool American expatriate in the movie Casablanca (1942). The gorgeous Ingrid Bergman and her entry into Bogart’s life in that old club, the mystery of love in the backdrop of a larger-than-life 2nd World War and Nazi concentration camps, Casablanca is a movie that would inspire the romantic of romantics. The exit scene when Rick and Ilsa walk hand in hand into the thick mist mumbling the cult dialogue: “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” — stuff that dreams are made of . The statement “one should not fall in love, but rise in love” would best suit the characters in this movie.

Who can forget the chirpy Audrey Hepburn, the pretty princess running away from the tyranny of the palaces into the life of the bohemian journalist Gregory Peck in the classy classic Roman Holiday (1953) ? The combination of charm, beauty, love, humor, and magic — the beautiful princess falling for the ‘common’ man became a model for generations of film-makers. The film has inspired girls to emulate the naughty, wide-eyed princess let loose with a dream man on the roads.

I can name ‘n’ number of movies and review them where the protagonist is no one but “LOVE” … ! Cleopatra (1963) was supposed to be a historical tale recording the life of the young, versatile Egyptian queen, who emerged as a challenge to the entire Roman empire. In addition to the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor (Liz Taylor was known as the ‘dream of every American man’ in her times) and Richard Burton as Marc Anthony, Rex Harrison as the towering Julius Caesar, make the movie a cult among love stories, with passion and darkness as its core. Recently, while I was reading tributes pouring in for Liz Taylor on her death, the only thing I could remember was the movie, and the shock, the surprise, the intrigue on Caesar’s face when he unrolls the Egyptian rug sent to him as a present by Cleopatra, and finds Cleopatra herself bundled-up within the rug!! These are love stories that write and rewrite histories.

To name a few other such movies Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable ‘s Gone With the Wind (1939) based on the novel with the same name by Margaret Mitchell, depicting the fiery love affair between Scarlett O’ Hara and Rhett Butler, and Sound of Music (1965) would remain classic favorites in love stories. However, I am slightly more biased towards the novel Gone with the Wind than the movie. That scene when Scarlett pleads Rhett not to leave her: “Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?” He famously answers, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”, make you cringe with anger and frustration. I have always had one question at the end of this scene: “how could he do this to a woman who loved him so deeply and frustratingly?” Sound of Music is diametrically opposite, here it is love that turns the worst moments of human history for the best. Based on the true story of the 2nd World War Austrian war family of the von Trapps, the movie is a spectacle on wide angle. Love can be so cinematic and so musical, was beyond my imagination until I saw Sound of Music. That song: “I am sixteen, going on seventeen” is a fairytale in motion.

Closer in time, ‘Forrest Gump’ (1994) and ‘You’ve Got Mail’ (1998) have been my personal favorites. That moment when Forrest realizes at the flash of a second that he has been running through the coasts for years because of his unrequited love for Jenny, is so mellow and the last scene when after the death of Jenny, Forrest, and Jenny’s son, the little Forrest spend time at the bus stop before the bus comes to pick the kid away to school, give the impression of time itself being caged.

‘You’ve Got Mail’ shall remain a dream movie….I remember each and every dialogue, each and every scene, and in fact when I visited United States on a Valentine’s Day (my longest Valentine’s Day), the first thing on landing at JFK I did was to go and buy a mug of coffee at Starbucks, dream the ‘American dream’ and pay a tribute to ‘You’ve Got Mail’ 🙂 . That brilliant scene towards the end of the movie when Joe Fox stops Kathleen Kelly and asks her: “Well, let me ask you something. How can you forgive this guy for standing you up and not forgive me for this tiny little thing of… of putting you out of business?” and then Kathleen starts to cry, hmmm…makes you fall in love so deeply. The other dialogue that has been a personal favourite through my adolescence, when I was struggling to learn the computer in school, was of Kathleen Kelly: “What will NY152 say today, I wonder. I turn on my computer. I wait impatiently as it connects. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You’ve got mail. I hear nothing. Not even a sound on the streets of New York, just the beating of my own heart. I have mail. From you.” 🙂 Hmmm…. The problem of my life was however different, instead of a man like Joe Fox I fell for the computer and the computer screen at that point of time 😛 !

Each of the movies that I was recounting above deserve to have at least one article independently. However, the thing that’s common to all these movies is love in various forms — in some it is cute and fairy-tale like, some it’s passionate and angry, some it’s meant to turn pages of history, some it’s everyday affair, some it’s ego and business, and in some it’s just unsullied affection which remains non-reciprocated.

There is something deeper that I intended to prove through this post. This post is committed to search for deeper human values and bring into light those aspects of life that people are either reluctant to accept or else believe that it shows their weakness or vulnerability. Those who are fighting against corruption, lawlessness, and terrorism, need to first ask themselves how honest have we been as individuals towards our conscience and towards the fundamental aspects of life. LOVE is that fundamental aspect — need not be always physical, always emotional, always social or cultural, it might be just HUMANE. Love is that angle in cinema which brings human beings face to face with their true selves — because internally we all desire and we all live to be loved. Possibly, that’s the reason why love stories sell a lot: “Har insaan ko zindagi mein ek baar pyar zaroor karna chaheyie. Pyar insaan ko bahut accha bana deta hai” ( Pyar toh Hona hi Tha ;)) We keep on finding solutions to our existence because as human beings our very basis is acceptance, acknowledgment, and reciprocation. Unfortunately, while we are struggling to bring the higher orders of life into stability, the fundamental aspects still remain unattended. Love is a strength and not a failure….

In this context, ‘I hate Love Storys’ is one minuscule of many such fragmentary attempts to glorify love. It’s no where to be compared with the great movies of the past century which I was just cataloguing. But, it did lead me to ask myself the million dollar questions: “why do love stories sell?” and “Do I really hate love stories?” 🙂

Maybe will write about some cult Bollywood love stories if my mood permits in the future….Till then,

“It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;– it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.” — Jane Austen

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